While most of the sites that currently host the so-called XML exploit are located in Asia, this attack on IE is likely to spread quickly to other sites, so make sure to update your PCs with this patch before using Microsoft’s browser for anything else.

The pressures of the holiday season are enough to drive anyone nuts. Just think what it can do to a man who already spends his days amongst tiny toymakers and flying reindeer. It’s not such a stretch to imagine that Santa might snap — and take some of the denizens of the North Pole with him!

Microsoft recently announced that a special, out-of-cycle patch would be released on Dec. 17 for Internet Explorer’s latest security vulnerability, the so-called XML exploit.

If you’d like to avoid similar weaknesses that are certain to be discovered in IE in the future, the simple solution is to use a different browser, such as Firefox, with a few easy customizations that allow you to switch to Microsoft’s browser only for sites that absolutely require IE.

The new year is a perfect time to throw out old things and start anew. We’ve licensed a copy of the best techniques from Alison Haynes’s new book, Clean Sweep, to help you rid your home and workplace of unseen pollutants and toxins, especially those that can cause allergies.

It’s no wonder that portable music players have become so popular. With the right song playing in the background, ordinary actions can be transformed into extraordinary experiences. Everyday activities beg for personalized playlists: get in the groove of your daily workout, rock out while cleaning the house … the possibilities are endless, even if we’re not!

Picture this: you’re about to marry the love of your life in front of all of your friends and loved ones. Everything’s going swimmingly. Your best man stands by your side, ready to play his part in the ceremony. He’s the perfect choice: responsible, trustworthy … so what if he’s also a little clumsy? At this point, nothing can dampen your spirits!

As often as possible, Windows Secrets licenses some new content that all of our readers can download and enjoy at no cost. This month, our bonus download reveals hidden motivations that operate beneath the level of our conscious mind.

In her new book, One Year to an Organized Work Life, Regina Leeds shows how you can turn time into your ally. In this exclusive excerpt, available from Windows Secrets only until Dec. 17, she provides four exercises that demonstrate how the holiday month of December can actually be used to get your workplace under control.

Cell phones have become a relative social necessity. Most users have embraced some semblance of cell-phone etiquette in public. But we unwritten-rule-abiding citizens are too often plagued by obnoxious, inconsiderate users.

The reasons behind the things we like are explained in The Pleasure Instinct: Why We Crave Adventure, Chocolate, Pheromones, and Music. From the smell of cocoa to the scent of a lover, there’s much to learn about our gut reactions.

Science fiction has long been popular with computer geeks: sci-fi films such as Blade Runner and The Matrix glorify the techie life. Supercomputer fantasies are all well and good, but come on! How do the movie folks get that big iron to run so darned smoothly?

This month’s free bonus remains ready for you to download, which is a good thing in case you couldn’t get to it last week.

For a few hours prior to 10 a.m. Pacific Time on Oct. 30, our subscribers who tried to download the file received the previous month’s file instead, due to a single erroneous character that I mistyped in a line of code — mea culpa!

Scott Dunn’sOct. 23
lead story, which described workarounds to help you sync Outlook contacts and calendars with an iPhone, neglected to provide detailed steps for users of BlackBerrys, Windows Mobile, and other devices.

Fortunately, the procedure to merge data with these other phones’ address books requires only the sync software that shipped with your mobile device.

Music videos have been a significant component of popular culture since the 1980s, providing musicians with another artistic avenue to express their creativity. Production values run the gamut — from bare-bones to extravagant to just-plain bizarre (the same could be said about the ’80s as a whole!).

There was a remarkably large response to Woody Leonhard’s Oct. 23column
on deactivating the Local Shared Objects (LSO) in Adobe’s Flash Player.

Few people were aware of Flash’s version of third-party tracking cookies, which advertisers use to keep tabs on your surfing habits and deliver ads based on your activities on previously visited sites.

No Job? No Prob! is a tongue-in-cheek guide to what to do if you suddenly find yourself without gainful employment. The printed book will soon appear in stores, but for a limited time, all Windows Secrets subscribers are eligible to download an e-book excerpt with four full chapters free of charge.

We don’t usually publish articles on the 5th Thursday of the month, thinking that that would be a chance to take a much-needed break from our weekly schedule.

A newly announced vulnerability in Windows, however, impelled us to publish a rarenews update
on Oct. 24, and we’re following with today’s special content to bring you contributing editor Susan Bradley’s latest findings on protecting yourself.

Ghosts, goblins, and ghouls are poised to haunt your doorstep on Oct. 31 in the innocuous pursuit of candy. But beware! Some of those innocent-looking revelers might just be zombies in disguise, walking the streets on a quest for brains and human flesh. Oh, no! How to tell the difference?

Christina Tynan-Wood, who’s contributed columns for PC World and PC Magazine and written for Popular Science, Family PC, and other magazines, is the author of this month’s free book excerpt for our subscribers. How to Be a Geek Goddess: Practical Advice for Using Computers with Smarts and Style is a tongue-in-cheek look at how to get the best deal when buying a laptop or desktop computer.

With today’s busy lifestyles, technological assistance seems indispensable. Cell phones and PDAs keep you up-to-date on anything that “just can’t wait” until the next time you’re in front of a computer. From the palm of your hand, you can now check your e-mail, peruse the latest headlines, manage your to-do list … and receive unsolicited dating advice?

We’ve obtained a license for you to download the best two chapters of How to Be a Geek Goddess: Practical Advice for Using Computers with Smarts and Style. The work is by Christina Tynan-Wood, who’s contributed columns for PC World and PC Magazine and written for Popular Science, Family PC, and other magazines.

Ever since I announced onOct. 9
that our editor-at-large, Fred Langa, was coming out of retirement to bring you a new column every week, we’ve received hundreds of e-mails from readers who’re glad to see him back.

Remember the good old days, when virtually every flight came with a full meal? Airline food may have become a synonym for any dubious cuisine, but it still nurtured us and ensured that we arrived home with a full belly and at least one harrowing mystery-meat anecdote to amuse our friends.

Everything seemed to be going so well. The sun was shining and the fish were schooling as the seaweed drifted lazily through the waves. It was altogether reminiscent of the loveliest underwater desktop environment…

Most of us have old vinyl albums and cassette tapes that we thought we’d never enjoy again. But in this helpful e-book, Converting Vinyl LPs and Cassette Tapes to CDs and MP3s by Jake Ludington, you get straight-forward solutions to preserve your memories using the playback equipment you probably already own. He rates free and low-cost software that makes it easy for you to convert your LPs and cassettes.

Several dozen Windows Secrets subscribers in London, England, skipped a sunny Saturday morning on Sept. 27 to give me their tuppence on the idea of launching a new discussion forum for Windows sufferers.

The consensus seems to be that it’s a great idea, so long as we don’t wreck the quality of content that we now send out from our experienced columnists.

In case the urge to watch Superbad strikes while you’re waiting for the bus, you can rip the DVD to your hard drive, copy the file to your phone or other handheld device, and press Play — no DVD drive required.

Of course, there’s another very good reason to rip your DVDs: the discs are prone to scratches, which could render your videos unwatchable and your data inaccessible.

In his Sept. 25lead story,
associate editor Stuart Johnston reported that the 32-bit version of Windows Vista provides users with “only 3GB of memory, a limitation that the 64-bit edition doesn’t have.”

Other 32-bit operating systems have similar memory constraints, but Stuart pointed out that 64-bit versions of Vista can address 8GB to 128GB of RAM, depending on the edition (Home Basic, Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate).

In the U.S., campaigns are heating up in the month preceding the presidential election. As the candidates dust off their “A” games for the final debates, there are about as many different opinions as there are voters. This hilarious political satire pokes fun at all of ‘em!

Cory Doctorow is co-editor of Boing Boing, a popular technology blog, and has just released his latest book, Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future. You can buy a printed copy for $11 or so, but all Windows Secrets subscribers can get the full, 224-page book as a PDF download for free.

We’ve all experienced the frustration and anxiety that receiving a cryptic error message invokes. That tiny, unassuming gray box pops up on your screen unexpectedly, and as you read it you wonder, “Am I supposed to understand this??”

Internet dating services have become overwhelmingly popular in our technologically savvy age. We are constantly inundated with advertisements featuring happy, loving couples who allegedly met online. If you believe the hype, everyone seems to be finding the love of their life via the Internet … everyone except Erik Weiner.

Superheroes have long captivated the hearts and imaginations of people worldwide. These sometimes-dark, colorfully clothed characters rise from the ashes of social injustice and treachery like a vigilante phoenix sent to right the wrongs of the world. Well, at least some superheroes do.

The temporary logo (shown at left) that we’ve used for the past two months was created when the Support Alert Newsletter merged with the Windows Secrets Newsletter in July 2008. As wasannounced
on July 9 by the editor of Support Alert, Ian “Gizmo” Richards, our long, transitional name is being shortened to simply Windows Secrets as of today.

There are only a few more days for our readers to get an exclusive excerpt from the new paperback edition of Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs.
Written under the pseudonym of Fake Steve Jobs (who’s been revealed as Forbes editor Daniel Lyons), the book is an uncensored fantasy inside the mind of one of the world’s showiest CEOs.

Most of us remember John Travolta’s dynamite disco routine in Saturday Night Fever, and who could forget Michael Jackson’s epic moonwalk? Elvis and his gyrating hips simultaneously scandalized and captivated his audiences, and the Brady Bunch’s family-friendly fandangos charmed viewers worldwide.

Throughout history, many great scientific minds have worked to unravel the male psyche. Freud and his ilk devoted entire lifetimes to understanding what goes on inside the mind of the common man… yet with one fell swoop, this hilarious commercial spoof has captured the very essence of the male attention span.

Although you can find free tools to help keep Windows and your other software up-to-date, you’ll have to pay to get the best tool for scanning your system’s drivers and downloading the updates you need.

I found some good driver updaters but also one full-on scam — Prosoft3D’s Driver Update 5 — that simply points you to Windows’ Device Manager and tells you to do the job yourself.

Have you ever gotten yourself stuck in a tight spot? Never fear! As this hilarious commercial illustrates, if you look hard enough, you’re bound to find a backdoor! This fly gives us all an inspirational (if a bit irregular) look at the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel.”

Ian “Gizmo” Richards, left, the former editor of the Support Alert Newsletter, is the new senior editor of a larger, combined publication: Windows Secrets & Support Alert. (This unwieldly name will be shortened after a transitional period.) Merging the two publications into a single effort gives us more free time to write new stuff for you, our readers. All of the old Support Alert articles are now posted at WindowsSecrets.com. See today’sIntroduction
for details.

The Support Alert Newsletter merges today with the Windows Secrets Newsletter, creating an e-mail publication with a combined circulation of more than 400,000.

For you, the best part is that all the great tips, reviews, and news items from the old Support Alert are now posted in one place at WindowsSecrets.com — and we’ve worked hard to make our entire library of content easy for you to browse and search.

The X Games have nothing on this woman! Watch as she tears up the hardwood on her bicycle, which at times seems to be an extension of her body. This incredible clip will leave you in awe of the sheer strength, balance, and skill required for these feats of two-wheeled wonder.

The Support Alert Newsletter will merge with the Windows Secrets Newsletter on July 24, creating a combined readership of more than 400,000 (see myIntroduction
column). The editor of Support Alert, Ian “Gizmo” Richards, has prepared for us a special get-acquainted gift: 9 Free Programs Every PC Should Have, an all-new e-book.

If you’ve already seen it — it’s been viewed more than 4 million times on YouTube — it’s worth watching again: Eddie Izzard’s take on Darth Vader trying to grab a bite for lunch qualifies as a true YouTube classic.

I have used Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+X, and other standard shortcut-key combinations for so long they now live in my subconscious.

Recently, I discovered a handful of obscure-yet-useful keyboard shortcuts that I now use on a daily basis, and while you may already know about one or two of ‘em, I bet a few of my favorites will come as a surprise to you.

On the Way to the Web: The Secret History of the Internet and Its Founders (photo, left) won’t be available in stores for weeks. But Windows Secrets readers can get the best chapters now, until July 2. —Brian Livingston, editorial director

First impressions are always important. It’s easy to be judged based on the brand of your shoes, the style of your clothes, or the scent of your cologne. According to this video, men now have one more thing to be judged on.

Microwaves have long been the standard appliance for popping popcorn. But what if you want to avoid those harmful rays that supposedly shrink your head if you stand too close? Or you may be somewhere with no access to a microwave and absolutely need your popcorn fix right this minute.

As exciting television goes, spelling bees aren’t more than a notch or two above watching Congressional debates on CSPAN. They may lack the grimaces of mixed-martial-arts contestants, but in recent years the pre-teen contestants of the Scripps National Spelling Bee have supplied some high-level drama — and hilarious bloopers.

You might think that my favorite PC timesaver would be a souped-up computer, a super-secret utility, or a settings tweak that makes Windows run at warp speed.

Nope. The tool that speeds my workday like no other is my ancient, indestructible Northgate keyboard — and while these babies have been out of production for years, I know how you can get your hands on a close approximation.

You have only until June 4 to get our exclusive, FREE, 20-page excerpt from the hilarious new book Delete This At Your Peril (left). Maxim magazine says the author’s e-mail exchanges with Nigerian spammers are “brilliantly deranged.”

Who hasn’t rummaged through their pants pocket or purse looking for their ultra-sleek, super-tiny cell phone and longed for a return to the days when using a mobile phone meant lugging around a 2-pound battery pack and holding a brick to your face?

We offered last week a 20-page excerpt from the hilarious new bookDelete This At Your Peril (left). Maxim magazine calls the work
“brilliantly deranged.” More than 12,000 Windows Secrets readers took
advantage of our bonus download.

All subscribers, free and paid, are eligible through June 4 to download a 20-page excerpt from Delete This At Your Peril (left). In this hilarious book, the author replied to notorious Nigerian and Russian get-rich-quick spam, asking the perpetrators for more and more outrageous conditions.

Craig Crossman’s Computer America radio program, which is broadcast in the U.S. and Canada and on the Web, will carry a special program May 6 on the controversy over the clean-install feature in Windows Vista.

You can listen in to the show and even submit questions you’d like the host to ask.

The universe works in mysterious — and often entertaining — ways. There are a few things fate clearly doesn’t appreciate: polluters, chemically imbalanced celebrities, and race car drivers who celebrate their victories before they actually cross the finish line.

On the heels of Vista Service Pack 1 comes the update that far more Windows users have been anticipating.

Unfortunately, XP Service Pack 3 is an unremarkable update for everyone except network admins, who will appreciate the additional control over wired and wireless connections offered by SP3’s Network Access Protection.

A Flash-based advertisement that appeared last week on the USA Today site downloaded malicious code to users’ computers, generating erroneous warnings of a malware infestation and offering a phony solution.

The Flash vulnerability is so widespread that such “malvertisements” may be present on thousands of sites, but there are measures you can take to reduce your exposure.

With the recent public betas of Office Live Workspace and Microsoft Online Services, the Redmond company is ratcheting up its efforts to deliver the power of MS Office — or at least a portion of it — to the Internet.

But Microsoft’s ability to offer software as a service (SaaS) has come under fire due to server outages and bugs that have plagued the company’s online services in the last several months.

The lead story in Windows Secrets onApr. 3
revealed that Vista Service Pack 1 allows the “upgrade edition” of the OS to be clean-installed, something that supposedly requires Vista’s more-costly “full edition.”

The same trick was present in the original release of Vista, as I reported more than one year ago, but the fact that Microsoft executives have allowed the procedure to remain in SP1 sparked yet another round of thrills on the Web.

Telemarketers. They have an uncanny knack of calling right when you don’t want them to. Whether you’re just sitting down to dinner, forced to interupt a relaxing shower, or deep in R.E.M., they generally find you at the most inconvenient moment — all so they can try to subscribe you to a magazine you’ve never heard of.

The worst kind of security bug is one that Microsoft probably won’t be fixing any time soon.

This week, I tell you about an annoying security problem in which Windows Vista fails to disable its AutoRun and AutoPlay features, even though you think you’ve got these two security risks under control.

Patches for IE should be our first priority this month, with several vulnerabilities that are ripe for malicious attacks facing us.

There’s still no sign of Windows XP SP3 in the near future, but Windows Server 2008 is receiving its first patches, and Vista SP1 is subject to a much-needed patch for an earlier patch that’s proved troublesome.

The new Service Pack 1 version of Windows Vista allows end users to purchase the “upgrade edition” and install it on any PC — with no need to purchase the more expensive “full edition.”

The same behavior was present when Vista was originally released, but the fact that the trick wasn’t removed from SP1 suggests that Microsoft executives approved the back door as a way to make the price of Vista more appealing to sophisticated buyers.

The auto-update routines for QuickTime and iTunes, two programs that play multimedia files, have quietly begun installing Apple’s Safari browser unless PC users are sharp enough to turn off a little-noticed option.

This week’s abomination makes me question the entire concept of trusting auto-update mechanisms as a way of seeking better security.

It’s Thursday. You’ve made it through the week so far without spilling coffee on yourself, calling a co-worker by the wrong name, or sending a scorching e-mail to the whole office by mistake. You’re on top of your mental game.

What was it about throwing water balloons as a kid that was so appealing? Throwing them at each other, your pets, moving
cars. It was thrilling! Would it explode? How would your target react? Not to mention the ever-pressing question of how full could you actually get your balloon.

MyFeb. 21 story reported that Microsoft considers Vista Ultimate, an upgrade from Vista Home Premium and Vista Business, to be a “consumer product,” reducing the company’s support for Ultimate to a maximum of 5 years rather than 10.

What’s confusing to buyers is that Microsoft does give a full 10 years of support to another consumer product: Windows XP Media Center Edition.

If you’re responsible for updating your company’s systems,
you now face service packs (and related problems) for XP, Vista, and Microsoft’s .NET Framework — and even Mac enthusiasts have to deal with repercussions from the recent 10.5.2 OS X upgrade.

If that weren’t enough, those of you who haven’t yet deployed the latest MS Office service packs will find plenty of quirks to chew on this week.

MyFeb. 14
article explained how to set up a Vista machine to dual-boot between that OS and Windows XP.

But booting to XP on a dual-boot system has the negative side-effect of deleting any Vista restore points, in addition to all but its latest backup file, and a Registry workaround is required to prevent this.

MyFeb. 7
article explained that the WSN Security Baseline summarizes the top ratings of several respected computer publications, but it is only a starting point for those who want to do their own research.

One reader responded with an impressive list of independent labs that evaluate security software and publish the results online.

Cupid. That sweet, cherubic boy of Valentine lore who, with a single pluck of his bow, can bring together star-crossed lovers, awaken a cold heart from its frosty slumber, and famously inspire love down through the ages.

I wrote onJan. 24
that Norton Internet Security 2008, a Symantec product, now has the greatest number of Editors’ Choice awards of any security suite, and therefore has replaced the ZoneAlarm suite in the WSN Security Baseline.

This story touched a nerve for a significant number of readers, who have had bad experiences with Symantec and its products in the past.

Maybe there’s something in the air. Maybe it’s just the raw, animal attraction that comes with a unibrow. Whatever it
is, the star of this 30-second Planters Peanuts commercial has it and is turning heads.

The foolish people who develop Web sites that only work in Internet Explorer, and users who still run IE instead of safer browsers, such as Firefox, repeatedly expose themselves to one hacker attack after another.

The latest example is an exploit that afflicts the social-networking sites MySpace and Facebook, in addition to the Yahoo Music Jukebox — but there’s an easy way to protect yourself.

Some readers of myJan. 3 andJan. 17
articles on the shrinking appeal of MSN Premium asked what they might lose if they canceled Microsoft’s for-pay service, which is now duplicated by features in the company’s free Windows Live and Windows itself.

The facts show that fears of losing one’s e-mail address or dial-up access are groundless.

Microsoft is planning to download to corporate sites a new build of Internet Explorer 7 on Feb. 12, and a new application called Silverlight on Jan. 22, according to apost
by ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley.

If your company uses Microsoft deployment tools to download and install updates, you may be wondering, “What if I don’t want everyone in my company to have the new IE 7 installed?” and “What the heck is Silverlight?”

OurDec. 13, 2007,
issue explained how a VoIP device called MagicJack, which charges only $20 USD per year for unlimited calls from anywhere in the world to U.S. and Canada phones, might make big long-distance bills a thing of the past.

As a result, many of our readers pointed out other innovative Internet products and services to help cut your phone bill down to size.

We all hate them, and yet we all make them. Inevitably, however, we all break them. Fitness always seems to be on the top of everyone’s resolutions for the New Year. Unfortunately for the little baby in this video, it hasn’t quite made it to the top of his father’s list.

Trademarks: Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Windows Secrets series of books is published by Wiley Publishing Inc. The Windows Secrets Newsletter, WindowsSecrets.com, WinFind, Windows Gizmos, Security Baseline, Patch Watch, Perimeter Scan, Wacky Web Week, the Logo Design (W, S or road, and Star), and the slogan Everything Microsoft Forgot to Mention all are trademarks and service marks of iNET Interactive. All other marks are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.